Have you ever been ghosted by candidates?

‘Ghosting’ a potential employer is an acceptable practice, according to a report by Clutch.

Surveying 507 full-time employees who started a new job in the past six months, Clutch found, 41% of job seekers say it’s reasonable to ghost companies during the interview process, abruptly cutting off communication when they decide not to pursue a job.

However, while candidates think it’s acceptable to ghost companies, only 32% think it’s reasonable for companies to ghost applicants.

Among job seekers who believe ghosting is reasonable, nearly half (48%) say it’s reasonable to ghost during the early stages of an interview process.

Surprisingly, nearly 1 in 10 people say they think it’s reasonable for companies (8%) or candidates (9%) to ghost after a job offer has been extended and accepted.

Among the most common reasons for ghosting are accepting another job (30%), when the company stops communicating with them (23%), and realising the role is not a match (19%).

Overall, nearly three quarters (71%) of job seekers have abandoned the application process and 52% abandoned 1-5 applications during their last search.

The report also revealed that most candidates (36%) receive no response at all when a company rejects them. When they do get a response, the majority (30%) received a generic rejection email.

Only 1 in 5 candidates (21%) are rejected by phone and only 13% receive a personalised rejection email.